The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has been been formally delegated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN) as the organisation to allocate DOT RADIO domain names.
The EBU plans to administer the .radio Top Level Domains in consultation with other sister organizations “for the benefit of the radio community worldwide.”
The domain name should bring benefits for the EBU and the world radio community, because themed media company related domain names are proving to be lucrative.
The little island of Tuvalu makes about $2.5 million per year from the sale of .tv domain names. Armenia is the holder of the .am domain, and the Federated States of Micronesia owns the rights to sell the .fm domain. All are making significant amounts of national income from the domain names.
Reaching this position involved a long journey for the EBU after the organisation’s initial application in 2012. The successful outcome was made possible thanks to the full endorsement of the eight broadcasting unions which form the World Broadcasting Unions (WBU) and other radio associations and organisations, such as the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) and the Association of European Radios (AER).
The launch of .radio was delayed by 18 months while competing bids were scrutinized.
“The EBU has fought strongly to obtain administration rights for .radio and we are very pleased that ICANN has approved our application to run this extraordinary CommunityTop Level Domain,” said Ingrid Deltenre, Director General of the EBU.
The .radio TLD is one of the few recognized community-based resources representing the interests of around 65,000 radio stations, 60,000 web radios, and others closely associated with the sector.
Beneficiaries of this new TLD will include licensed broadcasters, radio stations from across the world, unions and related organizations, trade-mark owners, licensed radio amateurs, web radios and radio professionals.
The EBU will soon launch and coordinate a governance body (World Radio Advisory Board, WRAB) to manage this new internet space together with the representatives of the main radio organizations which supported the EBU application.
The launch of the .radio TLD is expected to take place during the first few months of 2017.